Communication Campaigns

by

Ronald Rice, Charles K. Atkin

• LAST REVIEWED: 11 May 2016
• LAST MODIFIED: 23 February 2011
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756841-0055

Introduction

Public communication campaigns encompass strategies for producing effects on the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of large populations across a variety of domains, including political, pro-social, environmental, and health outcomes. Public communication campaigns can be broadly defined as purposive attempts to inform, persuade, or motivate behavior changes in a relatively well-defined and large audience, generally for noncommercial benefits to the individuals and/or society at large, typically within a given time period, by means of organized communication activities involving mass and online/interactive media, and often complemented by interpersonal support. The following sections provide selected annotated citations (books, book chapters, articles, and websites) in the general order of the stages involved in developing and implementing communication campaigns: General Overviews (texts, reviews, and guides), Journals, Theory, Social Marketing, Design (messages, media, and audiences), New Media, Formative Evaluation, Implementation (planning and managing), Campaign Issues (Community, Media Advocacy), Health (health issues), HIV/AIDS, Nutrition (including obesity), Drugs (drugs and alcohol), Smoking, Human Rights, Environment, and Evaluation.

General Overviews

These include texts, edited collections, and reviews of the multiple stages in developing, designing, implementing, and evaluating communication campaigns. Central to well-designed and evaluated campaigns are identifying and applying appropriate theory. DiClemente, et al. 2002 shows how different health theories are applied in a variety of cases. Several of these entries provide a broad range of case examples and applications of the stages and concepts in health promotion and communication campaigns, such as some chapters in Thompson, et al. 2010. Green and Tones 2010 provides international cases of public information campaigns, while Lundgren and McMakin 2009 focuses on risk communication. Chapters or articles providing comprehensive reviews include Rice and Atkin 2009 (which gives considerable coverage to the use of new media), and several in Thompson, et al. 2010. Rice and Atkin 2001, and Witte, et al. 2001 present broad coverage of communication campaigns, with the former more oriented toward academic reviews and studies, and the latter more oriented toward practical steps in developing health campaigns in particular. Klingermann and Roemmele 2001 emphasizes the role of opinion leaders, public officials, and executives in influencing the form and outcomes of campaigns. The Centers for Disease Control’s online Gateway to Health Communication and Social Marketing Practice provides extensive resources, including health communication and social marketing basics, interactive features (blogs, social media tools, and success stories), conferences, evaluation, audience, campaigns, research/evaluation, channels (metrics, media resources, website development, eHealth), campaign and health literacy tools and templates, risk communication, and CDCSynergy, a social marketing planning guide.

• DiClemente, R. J., R. A. Crosby, and M. C. Cegler, eds. 2002. Emerging theories in health promotion practice and research: Strategies for improving public health. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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  The fourteen chapters provide an excellent overview of relevant health promotion and persuasion theories. These include the precaution adoption process, information-motivation-behavior skill, elaboration likelihood, authoritative parenting, natural helper, community coalitions, community capacity, social capital, prevention marketing, behavioral ecological model, applying theory, and future directions.

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• Green, G., and K. Tones. 2010. Health promotion: Planning and strategies. 2d ed. London: SAGE.

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  This offers a wide-ranging international perspective on health promotion strategies and topics, such as competing definitions and ideologies of health, theory (from diffusion of innovations to empowerment), planning models, practice, needs assessment, alliances, public policy, education, mass communication, social marketing, advocacy, values and ethics, community programs, and evaluation.

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• Klingermann, H- D., and A. Roemmele, eds. 2001. Public information campaigns and opinion research: A handbook for the student and practitioner. London: SAGE.

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  Includes chapters about public information campaigns in many countries and case studies, with an emphasis on practical applications and survey research. One of its strengths is consideration of communication between executive, legislative, and administrative leaders and citizens, highlighting the role of opinion leaders, public opinion, and media effectiveness.

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• Lundgren, R. E., and A. H. McMakin. 2009. Risk communication: A handbook for communicating environmental, safety, and health risks. 4th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-IEEE Press.

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  The research field of risk communication has important overlaps with communication campaign design and evaluation. This book discusses a wide variety of approaches to communicating risk, relevant laws, constraints and ethical issues, and the stages in risk communication plans (including stakeholders and new media), with extensive examples and case studies.

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• Rice, R. E., and C. K. Atkin, eds. 2001. Public communication campaigns. 3d ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

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  This edited book assembles thirty-one chapters on public communication campaigns, covering historical and theoretical foundations, campaign design and evaluation (formative, outcome, systems, effectiveness, and a meta-analysis), lessons from the field, a section of short overviews of twelve campaigns, and new approaches and current challenges.

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• Rice, R. E., and C. K. Atkin. 2009. Public communication campaigns: Theoretical principles and practical applications. In Media effects: Advances in theory and research. 3d ed. Edited by J. Bryant and M. Oliver, 436–468. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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  This state-of-the-art overview describes the broad array of concepts and processes that determine the effectiveness of public communication campaigns. It includes a considerable review of the use of online and digital media in interventions and campaigns.

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• Thompson, T., R. Parrott, and J. Nussbaum, eds. 2010. Handbook of health Communication. 2d ed. London: Routledge.

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  This comprehensive handbook provides several chapters related to health communication campaigns: community organizing, especially with marginalized groups, communicating wellness initiatives, media campaigns, health message design, using computers for tailoring and targeting, online health information, public relations, popular media representations, health literacy, and lessons learned from health campaigns.

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• Witte, K., G. Meyer, and D. P. Martell. 2001. Effective health risk messages: A step-by-step guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

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  This book presents a detailed blueprint for constructing effective health messages. It covers a wide range of theoretical foundations (fear, extended parallel process, health belief, stages of change, etc.) for developing messages, formative and summative evaluation, evaluation research designs and data collection, dissemination, worksheets, and practical examples.

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Journals

Most original research on communication campaigns is published in academic journals, even though the majority of sources cited in this overview are drawn from books and chapters in order to provide breadth of coverage. New investigations of campaigns appear in a diverse variety of journals, particularly from the fields of communication and public health. Reflecting the health-oriented research on campaigns, the two primary communication journals are the Journal of Health Communication and Health Communication; the Journal of Communication is the other significant outlet in the communication field. Two key journals in the broad field of medicine that carry campaign research are the American Journal of Public Health and Health Education and Behavior. Key specialty journals are the Journal of Medical Internet Research for technologically oriented research and the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs that covers a pair of leading prevention topics in the media. Finally, the Social Marketing Quarterly is an important source for nonhealth campaign investigations.

• American Journal of Public Health

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  Published by the American Public Health Association, the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) is the leading journal in public health, with a high impact factor and broad readership. It occasionally publishes research and commentary relevant to health campaigns, primarily authored by public health rather than communication scholars.

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• Health Communication

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  Published by Taylor & Francis Informaworld, Health Communication (HC) bridges the medical and social sciences, emphasizing the role of communication in improving practical communication between caregivers and patients, and between institutions and the public. Other key topics are health campaigns, health information, health promotion, interviewing, health public relations, and gerontological concerns; it is the leading source of health campaign research, particularly in a US context.

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• Health Education and Behavior

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  Published by the Society for Public Health Education, its empirical research, case studies, program evaluations, and literature reviews examine social and behavioral change as they affect health status and quality of life, particularly the processes of planning, implementing, managing, and assessing health education and social-behavioral interventions.

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• Journal of Communication

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  Published by the International Communication Association, this broad-ranging communication journal covers a wide array of communication specialties and policy issues. Because it addresses socially significant phenomena, articles related to various types of public communication campaigns are regularly published.

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• Journal of Health Communication

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  Published by the Center for Global Health at George Washington University, the Journal of Health Communication (JHC) is aimed at both researchers and professionals, and gives considerable emphasis to international research. Key topics include risk communication, health literacy, social marketing communication, policy making, health education, and communication technology applications. This is one of two health communication journals carrying a large amount of campaign research.

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• Journal of Medical Internet Research

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  Published by the eHealth Research Network, this highly cited, independent, online, open journal is a central resource for studies of Internet and other digital media-based medical and health interventions and campaigns. For example, Issue 5, published in 2008, was a special issue on Web-assisted tobacco interventions.

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• Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

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  Published by the Center for Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University, the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs or JSAD (formerly the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and the Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol) is the leading journal in the field of alcohol studies, and also carries studies on other legal drugs as well as illegal drugs. Occasionally, campaign-related articles are published because media entertainment, news, and campaigns give considerable emphasis to these substances.

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• Social Marketing Quarterly

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  Published by the Academy for Educational Development, and covering theoretical, research, and practical issues, this journal is a great source for articles on communication and social marketing campaigns. Most issues through Vol. 13 provided a detailed section on additional resources (books, articles, websites, conferences).

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Theory

Theoretical foundations are necessary to guide communication campaign message development, choose which combination of mass, online, and interpersonal media to use, identify persuasion and exposure strategies, create a causal model about influences and barriers that is the basis for evaluation, and enable learning between researchers and practitioners. These entries explicitly consider theoretical aspects of campaign design, ranging from particular theories (Bandura 2004 on social cognitive theory; Randolph and Visnawath 2004 reviews the effective use of health theories in mass media campaigns; Rothman, et al. 2006 on gain- and loss-framed messages) to comprehensive reviews (Glanz and Bishop 2010 in the context of women’s health). For extensive coverage of persuasion theories, see Stiff and Mongeau 2003, and Perloff 2003. A good complement is Slater’s analysis of the proper specification of theories for health communication campaigns (Slater 2006). Rogers’s classic diffusion of innovation theory (Rogers 2003) has been used in an extensive variety of campaigns, especially in the development and health contexts (such as family planning), but also in integrating mass media, interpersonal communication, and social networks. Here, communication campaigns are seen as one of many forms of fostering the spread of new ideas.

• Bandura, A. 2004. Health promotion by social cognitive means. Health Education & Behavior 31:143–164.

  DOI: 10.1177/1090198104263660Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  In social cognitive theory, self-efficacy beliefs combine with goals, outcome expectations, and perceived impediments and facilitations. This review focuses on health campaigns at both the personal and social level, emphasizing that comprehensive health promotion strategies should take into account the relevant practices of social systems that shape health behavior.

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• Glanz, K., and D. B. Bishop. 2010. The role of behavioral science theory in development and implementation of public health interventions. Annual Review of Public Health 31:399–418.

  DOI: 10.1146/annurev.publhealth.012809.103604Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This overview of behavioral science theories used in public health interventions stresses the multiple determinants of health behaviors articulated in the health belief, ecological and transtheoretical models, as well as social cognitive theory; the authors also illustrate the applicability of these theories in women’s health programs.

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• Perloff, R. 2003. The dynamics of persuasion: Communication and attitudes in the 21st century. 2d ed. London: Routledge.

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  This is a comprehensive source for understanding persuasion theories and applications relevant to campaign message design, on topics such as health, politics, and racial prejudice. It explains central persuasion theories, persuasion functions and consequences, attitudes, processing, and components of persuasion (source, message, personality) in interpersonal communication, advertising, and communication campaigns.

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• Randolph, W., and K. Visnawath. 2004. Lessons learned from public health mass media campaigns: Marketing health in a crowded media world. Annual Review of Public Health 25:419–437.

  DOI: 10.1146/annurev.publhealth.25.101802.123046Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article provides a broad review of the health campaign literature, and of effectively applied theories. A key factor enabling media campaign success is mobilizing or exploiting a supportive community environment that reinforces the messages. Another important consideration is the conditions for employing gain- versus loss-framed health messages.

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• Rogers, E. M. 2003. Diffusion of innovations. 5th ed. New York: Free Press.

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  Diffusion theory describes how innovations spread through both mediated channels and interpersonal networks, and highlights the influential role played by opinion leaders. Thus, one campaign strategy is to initiate an indirect or multistep flow by disseminating messages to potential interpersonal influencers who can personally influence focal individuals through communication networks.

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• Rothman, A. J., R. D. Bartels, J. Wlaschin, and P. Salovey. 2006. The strategic use of gain- and loss-framed messages to promote healthy behavior: How theory can inform practice. Journal of Communication 56:S202–S220.

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  This article provides a cogent summary of the strategic considerations in designing messages, and the applicability of framing concepts to cancer communication. Gain-framed messages tend to be more effective for disease prevention messages, while loss-framed appeals have greater influence in motivating behaviors involving the early detection of diseases.

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• Slater, M. 2006. Specification and misspecification of theoretical foundations and logic models for health communication campaigns. Health Communication 20:149–157.

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  Theory-based communication interventions should specify conceptualizations underlying message effects mechanisms; campaign logic models should be sensitive to campaign effects. Implications involving design and dissemination strategies are drawn from elaboration likelihood model, attitude accessibility, attitude to the ad theory, exemplification, and framing.

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• Stiff, J. B., and P. Mongeau. 2003. Persuasive communication. 2d ed. New York: Guilford Press.

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  The authors provide an overview of theoretical models pertinent to persuasive strategies and effects in communication campaigns, emphasizing alternative theoretical explanations. Theories widely used to guide choices about sources, messages, and appeals include social cognitive, social judgment, elaboration likelihood, protection motivation, social comparison, inoculation, fear appeals, and more.

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Social Marketing

Social marketing integrates communication campaign research and implementation with marketing principles, by conceptualizing socially beneficial ideas (e.g., wearing seat belts, using condoms, getting checkups) as attractive, accessible, affordable, and appropriate products. Andreason 2005, and Kotler and Lee 2007 are two foundational texts on social marketing, covering all the topics, issues, and approaches. Evans and Hastings 2008, and Grier and Bryant 2009 apply social marketing to public health contexts, with the former explaining the concept of public health “branding” with international cases on a diverse set of topics. Appropriate for their concern with access and applicability, social marketers have developed a wide variety of online resources, three of which are provided here: an online guide for community-based social marketing, a database of campaigns, and the Social Marketing Institute website. Uhrig, et al. 2010 reviews the use of social media sites as social marketing channels.

• Andreason, A. R. 2005. Social marketing in the 21st century. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

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  To some extent, this updates and simplifies Andreason’s classic book Marketing social change (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995). The perspective here is on describing and integrating both “downstream” (individual) and “upstream” (organizations, policy makers, media, institutions) social marketing campaigns, along with central behavior change theories, segmentation, and numerous examples.

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• Community-based social marketing

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  An online guide illustrating how to use community-based social marketing to design and evaluate programs to foster sustainable behavior; a searchable databases of articles, downloadable reports, graphics, and case studies on fostering sustainable behavior; and a listserv for sharing information and asking questions of others.

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• Evans, W. D., and G. Hastings, eds. 2008. Public health branding: Applying marketing for social change. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

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  Emphasizing the application of the branding aspect of social marketing to health promotion, this focuses on developing long-term, positive associations with healthy behaviors or lifestyles, from tobacco to HIV/AIDS, in the United States and internationally, in developed and developing countries. Includes a wide variety of examples of campaigns and cases.

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• Grier, S., and C. A. Bryant. 2009. Social marketing in public health. Annual Review of Public Health 26:319–339.

  DOI: 10.1146/annurev.publhealth.26.021304.144610Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This overview presents a practical definition of social marketing and discusses the conceptual underpinnings of this practice. Case studies applied to public health are also provided, along with a discussion of challenges that limit the effectiveness of the social marketing approach in the public health context.

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• Kotler, P., and N. Lee. 2007. Social marketing: Influence behaviors for good. 3d ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

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  The social marketing perspective is especially applicable to promoting desirable behavior. It emphasizes offering gains from attractive “products” (e.g., the designated driver arrangement). With many US and international cases and examples, the book provides very detailed explanations of all components of social marketing, from planning through evaluation and budgeting.

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• National Social Marketing Centre’s ShowCase

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  This site provides case studies of over thirty social marketing campaigns, ranging from sustainability to high blood pressure. Each case provides an assessment of eight benchmark criteria (ranging from methods to behavioral goals and theory), partnerships, lessons learned, and final reports and evaluations.

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• The Social Marketing Institute

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  Social marketing is defined on this site as “the planning and implementation of programs designed to bring about social change using concepts from commercial marketing.” The institute is involved in carrying out and disseminating research, training and educating organizations, and sponsoring academic research.

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• Uhrig, J., C. Bann, P. Williams, and W. D. Evans. 2010. Social networking web sites as a platform for disseminating social marketing interventions: An exploratory pilot study. Social Marketing Quarterly 16:2–20.

  DOI: 10.1080/15245000903528365Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This study assessed users’ receptivity to receiving health information via online social networking sites. Respondents were generally receptive to the scenarios, especially among those participating in online discussion groups. This new media form offers a promising opportunity to disseminate health social marketing messages.

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Design

In the communication campaign literature, “design” may have several meanings. Most familiar is the “research design of a campaign,” considered specifically under Evaluation. Here, design refers to the creation of messages and the appropriate selection and use of communication channels (from interpersonal to mass and local media to digital/online media) for the intended audience(s). Shouting To Be Heard and the Ad Council offer background on, resources for, and utilization measures of, Public Service Announcements, a staple support (through both mass and online media) for public communication campaigns. Graphic designs (especially environmental) and professional resources (especially health) are provided online by DesignCanChange and Health Communication Materials Network. Atkin and Salmon 2010 provides explicit analysis of mediated campaign channels, while Southwell and Yzer 2007 considers interpersonal communication.

• Ad Council

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  The Ad Council is a private, non-profit organization that organizes professionals from the advertising and communications industries to volunteer their time and resources to develop public service campaigns. The Ad Council produces and promotes these public service campaigns for non-profit organizations trying to improve public and social health and well-being.

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• Atkin, C., and C. Salmon. 2010. Communication campaigns. In Handbook of communication science. 2d ed. Edited by C. Berger, M. Roloff, and D. Roskos-Ewoldsen, 419–435. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

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  Campaign channels differ in terms of reach (exposure to message), specializability (targeting or tailoring), intrusiveness (gaining attention), personalization (relational nature of source–receiver interaction), decodability (effort required for processing stimulus), depth (conveying detailed and complex content), agenda-setting (salience priority of issues), and economy (cost of producing and disseminating stimuli).

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• DesignCanChange

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  A resource site for graphic designers involved in sustainability and climate change efforts, with great slide shows on issues, facts, and impacts.

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• Health Communication Materials Network

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  This is a worldwide association of professionals in the area of developing public health communication campaigns and materials. Provides access to pamphlets, posters, video, radio, novelty items, flipcharts, cue cards, and training materials. The site also has a forum to discuss health communication issues with other professionals and experts.

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• Shouting To Be Heard: Public Service Advertising in a New Media Age.

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  Videos and reports from a conference supported by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The main report (2002) traces the history of Public Service Announcements. Other topics include airtime allotted to and definitions of Public Service Announcements, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Telecommunications Act, and the Children’s Television Act.

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• Southwell, B. G., and M. C. Yzer. 2007. The roles of interpersonal communication in mass media campaigns. In Communication yearbook 31. Edited by C. S. Beck, 419–460. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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  This review focuses on mutual influences between interpersonal communication and mass media campaigns, identifying three basic roles for interpersonal communication: media campaign outcome, mediator of campaign effects, and moderator of effects.

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New Media

The use of computers, digital and wireless networks, and mobile devices for providing interventions expands campaigns from broadcasting a message through large-audience mass media, to social networking and individually tailored messages and interventions. Street, et al. 1997 collects some of the earliest studies on interactivity for health promotion. Noar, et al. 2009 explains the use of interactivity inherent in new media specifically for creating tailored messages. Increasingly, online sites (such as that of the Centers for Disease Control) are providing extensive interactive and social media tools for health campaigns. With the growing body of research on using new media in communication campaigns (especially health interventions), more comprehensive reviews and meta-analyses are available, many focusing on the potential of interactivity. Fjeldsoe, et al. 2009 reviews the use of mobile phones, in applying interactive interventions to improving health. Portnoy, et al. 2008 reports results from seventy-five randomized controlled trials using computer-based interventions, and Rains and Young 2009 analyzes twenty-eight studies of online support groups. Webb, et al. 2010 includes eighty-five studies of Internet-based interventions for health behavior change in its meta-analysis. Baranowski, et al. 2008, in its meta-analysis, attests to the value of video games.

• Baranowski, T., R. Buday, D. I. Thompson, and J. Baranowski. 2008. Playing for real: Video games and stories for health-related behavior change. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 34.1:74–82.

  DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2007.09.027Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Video games can deliver health behavior change experiences and story-oriented message content in an interactively engaging manner that enables modeling and vicarious experience. A meta-analysis of twenty-five studies of using video games shows general improvement in health behavior (chronic disease management, exercise, and diet).

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• Centers for Disease Control. Interactive media and e-health marketing

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  Provides blogs, social media, eGames, podcasts, health e-cards, virtual worlds, mobile applications, data visualization, RSS feeds, widgets, public engagement, e-health data briefs, and case studies.

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• Fjeldsoe, B. S., A. L. Marshall, and Y. D. Miller. 2009. Behavior change interventions delivered by mobile telephone short-message service. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 36.2:165–173.

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  Mobile phones, especially short message service (texting), are well suited to offer tailored, wide-reaching, interactive, and continuing campaign interventions. Positive short-term behavior change was obtained in thirteen of fourteen studies.

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• Noar, S. M., N. G. Harrington, and R. Aldrich. 2009. The role of message tailoring in the development of persuasive health communication messages. In Communication yearbook 33. Edited by C. S. Beck, 73–133. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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  Online screening questionnaires assess factors such as readiness stage, stylistic tastes, knowledge levels, and current beliefs, and then direct users to narrowly targeted messages.

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• Portnoy, D. B., L. A. J. Scott-Sheldon, B. T. Johnson, and M. P. Carey. 2008. Computer-delivered interventions for health promotion and behavioral risk reduction: A meta-analysis of 75 randomized controlled trials, 1988–2007. Preventive Medicine 47.1:3–16.

  DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2008.02.014Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The authors’ meta-analysis of seventy-five randomized controlled health trials involving computer-delivered intervention found improved knowledge, attitudes, intentions, health behaviors, and general health maintenance, across a variety of health domains (addiction/substance use, chronic diseases, nutrition, physical activity, and sexual health).

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• Rains, S. A., and V. Young. 2009. A meta-analysis of research on formal computer-mediated support groups: Examining group characteristics and health outcomes. Human Communication Research 35:309–336.

  DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2009.01353.xSave Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A twenty-eight-study meta-analysis indicates that participating in a formal computer-mediated support group intervention leads to an increase in social support, perceived quality of life, and health self-efficacy, and a decrease in depression. Impact on health outcomes was moderated by group size, available communication channels, and intervention duration.

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• Street, R. L., W. Gold, and T. Manning, eds. 1997. Health promotion and interactive technology: Theoretical applications and future directions. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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  One of the earliest books on this general topic, it includes contributions on designing, implementing, and evaluating interactive computing technology for health promotion, challenges and obstacles to its diffusion, and a range of specific technologies.

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• Webb, T. L., J. Joseph, L. Yardley, and S. Michie. 2010. Using the Internet to promote health behavior change: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the impact of theoretical basis, use of behavior change techniques, and mode of delivery on efficacy. Journal of Medical Internet Research 12.1: e4

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  A meta-analysis of eighty-five studies examining use of the Internet for health behavior change reported a small but significant overall positive effect, with stronger results for interventions applying theory in general and the theory of planned behavior in particular, those applying behavior change techniques, and those using the text messaging delivery mode.

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Formative Evaluation

Creating an appropriate message or integrated set of messages through different media across different time periods to different and relevant subaudiences is itself a significant theoretical and practical campaign challenge. Atkin and Freimuth 2001 and chapters in Maibach and Parrott 1995 present good summaries of formative evaluation in campaign and message design. Central to formative evaluation is understanding target audiences’ use of particular media channels and content, as indicated by media ratings analysis, comprehensively described by Webster, et al. 2006. Useful resources for formative evaluation, such as understanding media uses and health attitudes and knowledge, are provided by the Centers for Disease Control’s Healthstyles Surveys, Monitoring the Future, the National Cancer Institute, and the Prevention Communication Research Database.

• Atkin, C. K., and V. Freimuth 2001. Formative evaluation research in campaign design. In Public communication campaigns, 3d ed. Edited by R. E. Rice and C. K. Atkin, 125–145. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

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  Formative researchers collect information from databases, focus groups, and custom surveys to gain knowledge and insight about the situation and audience predispositions, channel usage patterns, and evaluations of prospective messengers and appeals. These are used to develop and pretest rough messages before final production.

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• Centers for Disease Control. Healthstyles surveys

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  In partnership with the University of Southern California’s Norman Lear Center on Hollywood, Health and Society, from 1999 to 2005, these reports describe characteristics of daytime and prime-time TV drama viewers, and the effects of TV health content on their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, and perceptions of health risks.

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• Maibach, E., and R. Parrott, eds. 1995. Designing health messages: Approaches from communication theory and public health practice. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.

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  This book underscores the need for grounding effective health messages in relevant behavioral and communication theories. Its strengths are the focus on message design, its discussion of persuasive approaches, the use of formative evaluation research, linkage to national health standards, and use of a wide variety of campaign cases.

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• Monitoring the Future

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  Provides surveys of health beliefs, based on responses from fifty thousand students in eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade, plus follow-ups with graduates. Offers a comprehensive summary as well as executive reports.

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• National Cancer Institute

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  The Health Information National Trends Survey provides access to research on a representative US sample of adults on variables such as channel usage and risk perceptions.

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• The Prevention Communication Research Database

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  A project of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is a searchable collection of audience research—such as attitudes, beliefs—related to designing prevention messages conducted or sponsored by HHS agencies.

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• Webster, J. G., P. F. Phalen, and L. W. Lichty. 2006. Ratings analysis: The theory and practice of audience research. 3d ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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  The authors demonstrate how audience ratings and usage data are valuable in identifying which media at which times the target audience is most likely to use. The overview of audience research methodologies can be applied to the formative and summative evaluation of public communication campaigns.

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Implementation

Any substantial campaign will require interaction with a wide range of political, economic, physical, environmental, and cultural factors. Having a clear plan and framework for managing the components is crucial for successful campaigns. There are many guides to and models for the stages of communication campaign implementation. Backer, et al. 1992 develops generalizations, across a variety of campaigns, based on extensive interviews with campaign experts. Planning models for health promotion are developed and explained by Bartholomew, et al. 2006 and Green and Kreuter 2004. Jackson, et al. 2006 highlights the role of external factors such as public policy and partnerships, while McKenzie, et al. 2008 covers more of the financial, community, and administrative aspects of campaign management. Resources for planning and managing all stages of campaign implementation are increasingly available online. The Australian ACT Health website emphasizes health promotion resources, while the Interactive Smart Chart 3.0 facilitates strategy development. The National Cancer Institute’s “Pink Book” is a widely used model, with extensive practical explanations and materials. The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs offers direct support and services, such as training and planning.

• ACT Health

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  Australian Capital Territory Department of Health Promotion provides online support for health promotion workers, and resources for strategies, needs assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation.

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• Backer, T., E. M. Rogers, and P. Sopory. 1992. Designing health communication campaigns: What works? Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.

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  Based on a wide array of interviews with researchers and practitioners, this suggests twenty-seven generalizations about successful health communication campaigns (including substance abuse, AIDS, smoking, teenage pregnancy, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and vehicle seat belt use). It concludes with implications for campaign design and future research.

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• Bartholomew, L. K., G. S. Parcel, G. Kok, and N. H. Gottlieb. 2006. Planning health promotion programs: Intervention mapping. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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  The six-step intervention mapping approach, based on theory and needs assessment, increases the efficiency and success of health programs. The extensive book reviews behavioral science and environment-oriented theories for program planning, and includes four detailed case studies (school HIV-prevention, asthma management for inner-city children, postpartum smoking cessation, and health cultivation).

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• Green, L., and M. Kreuter. 2004. Health promotion planning: An educational and ecological approach. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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  This book describes a two-part health promotion planning model. The Precede component includes diagnosis of the ecosystem of lifestyle, health, and environment (the predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling determinants). The Proceed component engages health education, media, and advocacy, which influence policy, regulation, resources, and organizations, to change the enabling determinants.

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• Interactive Smart Chart 3.0

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  The Smart Chart is an online tool that can help organizations make and assess strategic decisions concerning starting the communications planning process, evaluating a communications effort already in progress, or reviewing a completed communications effort.

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• Jackson, S. F., F. Perkins, E. Khandor, L. Cordwell, S. Hamann, and S. Buasai. 2006. Integrated health promotion strategies: A contribution to tackling current and future health challenges. Health Promotion International 21.S1:75–83.

  DOI: 10.1093/heapro/dal054Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Evidence compiled from multiple literature reviews of health promotion demonstrates the importance of factors such as public policy implementation, development of supportive environments, multistrategy interventions, intersectoral action, interorganizational partnerships, and supplementation of personal skills’ acquisition with other strategies.

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• Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

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  The center is involved in research-based communication for behavior change and health promotion. It provides communication assistance internationally in a wide variety of areas, including needs assessment, campaign planning, mass media campaigns, training, research, evaluation, dissemination of findings, and other services.

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• McKenzie, J. F., B. L. Neiger, and R. Thackeray. 2008. Planning, implementing, and evaluating health promotion programs: A primer. 5th ed. San Francisco: Benjamin Cummings.

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  Combines theoretical and practical aspects of health promotion programs, considering a range of settings. Includes coverage of proposal and budget preparation, theoretical models, needs assessment (including community readiness), measurement, resource identification, implementation, marketing processes, a way to classify evaluation designs, community organizing, analysis and reporting.

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• National Cancer Institute. Making health communication programs work: A planner’s guide

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  Known as the “Pink Book,” the guide describes four stages: planning and strategy development; developing and pretesting concepts, messages, and materials; implementing the program; assessing effectiveness and making refinements. Includes materials on message design, audience identification, evaluation methods, forms, scripts and samples, planning frameworks, social science theories, and glossaries, books, reports, and journals.

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Campaign Issues

One enduring aspect of campaign strategy is the role of communities. Communities may be the unit of treatment and thus a level of analysis, requiring considerable planning and implementation efforts. Communities also provide many crucial contexts for the campaign issue (such as local health risks, social norms, or health-care infrastructure). And they also provide a powerful resource for knowledge about and participation in campaigns. Another campaign perspective is the extent to which media advocacy should be used, or seen as a goal, in campaigns. The aim here is to get media engaged in the issue, raising awareness in the relevant populations, and to put pressure on policy makers and legislators to generate the necessary systemwide changes.

Health

Health issues are the most frequent focus of communication campaigns (apart from the separate field of political campaigns). The US government, in particular, has provided considerable resources in both online and print for guiding health campaigns, is the primary disseminator of health information, and provides funding through its agencies for most of the large-scale public communication campaigns. For a broad range of chapters on media coverage of health information, see Atkin and Wallack 1990. For materials and guides to health campaigns, the Centers for Disease Control’s Campaign Guide offers the complete set of materials for an antibiotics campaign, and Piotrow, et al. 1997 and Piotrow, et al. 2003 describe the stages of and lessons learned from international family planning programs. Siegel and Doner 2007 takes a more social marketing approach in its overview of the stages and theoretical foundations of public health campaigns. The compilation in Hornik 2002 emphasizes the design and analysis of health campaigns. An example health campaign appears at Advocates for Youth, while Bauman, et al. 2008 reports on results in the Centers for Disease Control’s VERB campaign.

• Advocates for Youth

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  This international campaign intends to help young people make informed and responsible decisions about their reproductive and sexual health. The website offers information to help achieve a more positive and realistic approach to adolescent sexual health. The campaign aims to help society become more comfortable with talking about sex.

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• Atkin, C., and L. Wallack, eds. 1990. Mass communication and public health: Complexities and conflicts. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.

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  This edited collection focuses on the various roles and issues relating to media coverage of health information. Topics include health promotion, journalist responsibilities, advertising controversies, regulatory policies, health images on television, promoting health through entertainment, mass media campaign strategies, and social marketing.

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• Bauman, A., M. Bowles, M. Huhman, C. Heitzler, B. Owen, B. Smith, and B. Reger-Nash. 2008. Testing a Hierarchy-of-Effects model: Pathways from awareness to outcomes in the VERB™ campaign 2002–2003. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 34.6: S249–S256.

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  A major Centers for Disease Control campaign promoting physical exercise was targeted to youth aged 9–13 years. Awareness of the campaign was related to understanding of the VERB themes, which in turn was related to being physically active; the effects bypassed attitudes and outcome expectations.

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• Centers for Disease Control. Campaign guide

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  This site offers extensive materials summarizing the Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work campaign—print materials, promotional items, radio and TV materials, a one-week observance campaign, about the campaign, online materials. In particular, it has pages of information for program planners, including a six-step comprehensive design and evaluation manual.

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• Hornik, R., ed. 2002. Public health communication: Evidence for behavior change. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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  This includes sixteen major campaign studies (on issues such as tobacco, family planning, and highway safety) comparing alternative research designs and complementary approaches to investigate health communication programs in many nations. It also includes a comprehensive meta-analysis, and good treatment of rigorous statistical analyses in campaign evaluation.

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• Piotrow, P. T., D. L. Kincaid, J. Rimon, G. Jr., and W. Rinehart. 1997. Health communication: Lessons from family planning and reproductive health. Westport, CT: Praeger.

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  Analyzes the main stages of international programs conducted by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs: conceptual frameworks; preliminary analysis for program planning; strategic design; development, pretesting and revision, and production; management, implementation, and monitoring; impact evaluation; planning for continuity; and challenges and opportunities.

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• Piotrow, P. T., J. G. Rimon II, A. P. Merritt, and G. Saffitz (2003). Advancing health communication: The PCS experience in the field. Center Publication 103. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Communication Programs.

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  Available online. [Draws fifty-two lessons in eight implementation stages (local needs, clear strategy, key program issues, community participation, controversy, evaluation, share results and credit, build capacity and sustainability) from a wide range of international health communication programs across forty-three countries.]

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• Siegel, M., and L. D. Doner. 2007. Marketing public health: Strategies to promote social change. 2d ed. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

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  This extensive book reviews public health threats, and challenges to public health practitioners in marketing social change and public health, at individual, social, and economic levels. Applies marketing principles to planning, designing, implementing, working with partners on, and evaluating public health interventions, and reviews theories underlying campaigns and message development.

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HIV/AIDS

Although medical treatment for HIV/AIDS is improving, the disease is still spreading in many countries, and prevention is by far the best current public health hope. For two examples of mass, widely exposed campaigns concerning HIV/AIDS, see the (RED) Campaign, which integrates mass media and commercial sales to generate donations, and World AIDS Day, which aims to increase public awareness. Green and Witte 2006 considers cultural contexts of the use of fear messages in campaigns about HIV. Ratzan 1993 includes an early collection of chapters on many aspects of HIV/AIDS campaigns and societal contexts. McKee, et al. 2004 describes a strategic communication approach to such campaigns internationally, while Edgar, et al. 2008 is a comprehensive, multidimensional source for recent approaches to HIV/AIDS communication, from interpersonal to online interactive media. Noar, et al. 2009b reports a meta-analysis of international campaigns concerning HIV/AIDS, and Noar, et al. 2009a does so for Internet-based interventions.

• Edgar, T. M., S. M. Noar, and V. S. Freimuth, eds. 2008. Communication perspectives on HIV/AIDS for the 21st Century. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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  Analyzes public and private communication about HIV/AIDS in the United States and other countries. The thirteen theory and research review chapters cover individual, dyadic, counseling, culture, campaign, political, and new media communication. The eleven exemplar case chapters range from interactive and Internet media through social networks, entertainment media, and outpatient clinics.

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• Green, E. C., and K. Witte. 2006. Can fear arousal in public health campaigns contribute to the decline of HIV prevalence? Journal of Health Communication 11:245–259.

  DOI: 10.1080/10810730600613807Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article examines cultural differences in the application of fear arousal to HIV prevention campaigns, presenting empirical evidence that indicates fear can play a significant role in changing sexual behavior in Africa despite objections about such strategies in the US context.

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• McKee, N., J. T. Bertrand, and A. Becker-Benton. 2004. Strategic communication in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

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  This book applies the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs strategic communication framework to HIV/AIDS campaigns internationally. It also emphasizes media advocacy, stigma reduction, audience-specific campaigns, communication support for clinical and social services and children, and campaign approaches such as entertainment-education, phone hotlines, and digital media.

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• Noar, S. M., H. G. Black, and L. B. Pierce. 2009a. Efficacy of computer technology-based HIV prevention interventions: A meta-analysis. AIDS 23.1:107–115.

  DOI: 10.1097/QAD.0b013e32831c5500Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This meta-analysis examines twelve computer-based HIV behavioral interventions, reporting a significant increase in condom use and decreases in sexual behavior, number of partners, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The effect size is similar to traditional human-delivered interventions, and similar for both men and women.

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• Noar, S. M., P. Palmgreen, M. Chabot, N. Dobransky, and R. S. Zimmerman. 2009b. A 10-year systematic review of HIV/AIDS mass communication campaigns: Have we made progress? Journal of Health Communication 14.1:15–42.

  DOI: 10.1080/10810730802592239Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Evaluations of thirty-four HIV/AIDS distinct campaign efforts in twenty-three countries indicate that campaigns have increasingly used audience segmentation procedures, focused on behavior change, and achieved high message exposure; an examination of the ten most rigorous campaigns shows that eight attained impact on behavior change or behavioral intentions.

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• Ratzan, S., ed. 1993. AIDS: Effective health communication for the 90s. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.

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  These fifteen chapters provide an early overview of HIV/AIDS campaigns, including campaign strategy and planning, health-care delivery, information accuracy, community organizing, prevention information, entertainment/information, the press and public policy, fear and denial, and global plans.

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• (RED) Campaign and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W82SoRp9Au4&feature=related.

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  This campaign uses the purchase of products to provide 50 percent donations to the Global Fund to purchase anti-retroviral medicine for people with AIDS in Africa, to suppress the disease, and to offer prevention education and training for local doctors and midwives.

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• World AIDS Day

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  This campaign is co-coordinated by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and it encourages people to “Wear the Red Ribbon” on World AIDS Day, every December 1. The campaign also addresses the stigma and discrimination associated with AIDS, and encourages people to break the silence and barriers to effective HIV/AIDS prevention.

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Nutrition

Obesity, especially among US children, has been receiving considerable media exposure recently, and appropriate nutrition is the basis for preventing many illnesses throughout life. Nutrition campaign resources are provided by the Center for Advanced Studies in Nutrition and Social Marketing site, and the Centers for Disease Control’s online course on social marketing approaches to nutrition and physical activity programs. Example campaigns include the 5-a-Day Campaign promoting the consumption of fruits and vegetables, and the California Cancer Prevention and Nutrition Section offering a range of nutrition campaigns oriented toward cancer prevention.

• 5-a-Day Campaign

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  This website gives information about the national “5-a-day” campaign. The campaign educates people about the importance of eating five or more servings per day of fruits and vegetables. The National Cancer Institute commissioned the campaign.

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• Cancer Prevention and Nutrition Section

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  Sponsored by the California Nutrition Network for Healthy and Active Families, this site includes a description of multiple campaigns in that state. For example, it describes a campaign specifically designed to encourage Latinos to eat more nutritiously. Also included are resources, events in the area, and related links.

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• Center for Advanced Studies in Nutrition and Social Marketing

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  This University of California, Davis center provides social marketing research, evaluation tools, lecture series, training, and publications regarding diet and physical activity to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases in California.

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• Centers for Disease Control. Social marketing for nutrition and physical activity

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  This online course teaches how to use social marketing for nutrition, physical activity, and obesity prevention programs; covers problem description, formative evaluation, strategy development, intervention design, evaluation, and implementation.

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Drugs

Especially because of the social context of drug use, the addictive nature of many drugs, the damaging and tragic consequences to self as well as others and society at large, and legal enforcement issues, campaigns about drug use (including drinking alcohol) have been pervasive for many years. Extensive research and implementation experience in mass media drug prevention efforts appear in Crano and Burgoon 2002. Hornik, et al. 2008, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, its Final Evaluation report, and audience-specific versions such as Freevibe and the Anti-Drug review the largest and most expensive national antidrug campaign using paid commercial ads. The Partnership for a Drug Free America describes another national antidrug campaign. The Avoiding the Boomerang study provides insight into possible unintended effects of antidrug Public Service Announcements. College drinking has received considerable attention, as examined at the Harvard School of Public Health site, and particularly from the social norms approach tested by DeJong, et al. 2006. Lederman and Stewart 2005 summarizes a multimethod/media/year campus campaign applying the social norms model.

• Avoiding the boomerang: Testing the relative effectiveness of antidrug Public Service Announcements before a national Campaign

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  This study reports on the perceived effectiveness of thirty antidrug Public Service Announcements. The study concludes that evaluative research is necessary to prevent the broadcast of Public Service Announcements that could have a negative impact.

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• Crano, W. D., and M. Burgoon, eds. 2002. Mass media and drug prevention: Classic and contemporary theories and research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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  This book organizes a series of theoretical perspectives and research studies focusing on the role of the mass media in designing science-based drug abuse prevention projects. It covers both successful and failed prevention activities, interactive media, Public Service Announcements, life skills and media literacy, and a meta-analysis.

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• DeJong W., S. K. Schneider, L.G. Towvim, M. J. Murphy, E. E. Doerr, et al. 2006. A multisite randomized trial of social norms marketing campaigns to reduce college student drinking. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 67.6:868–879.

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  Evaluation research generally supports the effectiveness of campaigns targeted to college students that present statistical information to correct misperceptions about normative drinking levels. In this multisite trial, perceptions and consumption were lower in intervention locales than control locales.

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• Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study

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  This project surveyed over 14,000 students at the same 120 four-year colleges in 40 states in 1993, 1997, 1999, and 2001. The schools and students selected for the study provide a nationally representative sample.

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• Hornik, R., L. Jacobsohn, R. Orwin, A. Piesse, and G. Kalton. 2008. Effects of the national youth anti-drug media campaign on youths. American Journal of Public Health 98.12:2229–2237.

  DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.125849Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  In this article evaluating the massive media-based Office of National Drug Control Policy campaign to combat marijuana and inhalant use among adolescents, most analyses of three national cohorts showed no effects. Some evidence indicated counterproductive long-term outcomes.

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• Lederman, L. C., and L. P. Stewart. 2005. Changing the culture of college drinking: A socially situated health communication campaign. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

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  This describes strategies used in a multiyear university campaign to reduce risky or dangerous drinking, based on a “socially situated” model of the influences on college drinking. A wide variety of on-campus media were used, grounded in a social norms approach, and the campaign was evaluated using primarily qualitative methods.

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• National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign

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  This was a multidimensional, nearly $1 billion, effort to educate and empower youth to reject illicit drugs. The campaign used a variety of media to reach parents and youth, including TV ads, educational materials, websites, and publications. For a summary evaluation, see the 2006 Final Evaluation; for a younger audience version, see Freevibe; and for a parents-oriented version, see The Anti-Drug.

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• Partnership for a Drug Free America

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  This site features the “What’s Your Anti-Drug?” campaign that aims to encourage kids to engage in other extracurricular activities like dancing and drawing instead of taking drugs. The site includes links to a number of campaigns and related sites and resources.

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Smoking

The eventual awareness of the extensive health, economic, and mortality consequences of smoking, and the availability of funds from large tobacco case settlements for research and campaigns, have led to a relative decline in smoking in the United States, and increasing bans on public smoking. See Friend and Levy 2002 for a review of research on antismoking campaigns using both mass media and tobacco control efforts, while Niederdeppe, et al. 2008 focuses on the effects of specifically cessation-oriented campaigns. The single most comprehensive overview of all the issues related to tobacco marketing, use, and campaigns is National Center Institute 2008. Farrelly, et al. 2005 evaluates the national “truth” antismoking campaign. The truth site describes the campaign and related industry and health information. California’s Anti-Tobacco Media Campaign describes and assesses the largest state-level antitobacco campaign.

• California’s Anti-Tobacco Media Campaign

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  This campaign is the longest-running, most comprehensive, and best-funded antismoking effort in the nation. The difficulties in reducing smoking in adults versus kids are considered.

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• Farrelly, M. C., K. C. Davis, M. L. Haviland, P. Messeri, and C. G. Healton. 2005. Evidence of a dose-response relationship between “truth” antismoking ads and youth smoking prevalence. American Journal of Public Health 95.3:425–431.

  DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2004.049692Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The “truth” campaign was carried out nationally by the American Legacy Foundation. Supplementing traditional strategies that emphasize smoking prevention or cessation appeals, the truth message themes featured public demonstrations against the tobacco industry. Studies showed increases in antitobacco attitudes and substantial declines in youth smoking as a result of this campaign.

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• Friend, K., and D. T. Levy. 2002. Reductions in smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption associated with mass-media campaigns. Health Education Research 17:85–98.

  DOI: 10.1093/her/17.1.85Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This literature review concludes that well-funded, broadly targeted media campaigns combined with comprehensive tobacco control policies are associated with reduced smoking prevalence among adults and youth. The evidence is more mixed in studies of small-scale youth-oriented interventions.

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• National Cancer Institute. 2008. The role of the media in promoting and reducing tobacco use. Tobacco Control Monograph 19. Bethesda, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute. NIH Pub. No. 07-6242.

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  This 650-page comprehensive and rigorous collection covers theory in media research in tobacco control and promotion, regulation, marketing, coverage in news and entertainment media, tobacco, tobacco control media interventions, tobacco industry influences, and future directions. This is clearly the primary foundation for designing and understanding tobacco communication campaigns. Available online.

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• Niederdeppe, J., M. Fiore, T. Baker, and S. S. Smith. 2008. Smoking-cessation media campaigns and their effectiveness among socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged populations. American Journal of Public Health 98.5:916–924.

  DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.117499Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Although anti-smoking campaigns have attained considerable success, this longitudinal study found that neither “keep trying to quit” or “secondhand smoke” ads were associated with quit attempts or smoking cessation, except for the positive effect of the “keep trying to quit” promotion for higher-educated populations.

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• truth

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  Begun in 2000, “truth” is the largest US youth smoking campaign. Run by the Legacy for Health Foundation, it focuses on preventing those under eighteen from starting to smoke by describing tobacco industry tactics, tobacco addiction, its health effects and social consequences, and using mass media, an interactive website, and links through social media sites.

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Human Rights

Issues such as poverty, discrimination, violence, malnourishment, and political repression, among others, provide continuous and global motivations for pro-social campaigners. A few online examples of human rights campaigns include the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (poverty and social justice), the Human Rights Campaign (sexual discrimination), the Women’s Economic Agenda Project (living wages for poor women), and the Women’s Human Rights (discrimination and violence). Singhal, et al. 2004 explains how entertainment-education campaigns have been used throughout the world to change social norms about these and other human rights issues.

• Catholic Campaign for Human Development

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  The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is the domestic antipoverty, social justice program of the US Catholic bishops. Its mission is to address the root causes of poverty in the United States through the promotion and support of community-controlled, self-help organizations and through transformative education.

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• Human Rights Campaign

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  This site details the goals of this campaign that include working for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights. It also includes links to information regarding issues, legislation, and policy, as well as ways to get involved.

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• Singhal, A., M. J. Cody, E. M. Rogers, and M. Sabido, eds. 2004. Entertainment-education and social change: History, research, and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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  Chapter authors trace the fifty-year history and review international cases of employing entertaining formats, such as soap operas and concerts, to attain pro-social goals such as promoting health, reducing poverty, and encouraging positive norms, and expand on the usual coverage of campaign media to include participatory theory, listening clubs, comic books, and soap operas.

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• Women’s Economic Agenda Project

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  This campaign demands justice for poor women and their families. Its organization works toward this end by assisting women to achieve a livable wage by providing technical training, emotional support, and linkage to resources. The site includes a mission statement, contact information, and links to related information.

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• Women’s Human Rights

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  This site is sponsored by Amnesty International, and details its campaign to end discrimination and violence against all women. The site includes articles, news, issues, and ways to support and get involved with the campaign.

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Environment

Issues such as pollution, global warming, depletion of ocean resources, water and air quality, recycling, sustainability, and so on require special messages to convey long-term, expensive, and not easily observable threats, and to generate systemwide and collective actions. Environmental communication in general, including environmental communication campaigns, is treated in an integrated framework by Cox 2006. Parker 2008 also emphasizes general environmental communication but does include specific chapters on message types and media roles. In-depth coverage of environmental education, policy influence, and public opinion change is provided by both Jacobson, et al. 2006 and Moser and Dilling 2007. The Ocean Project is a major online resource for ocean environmental campaigns as well as public attitudes and knowledge, while the United Nations Environment Programme offers an extensive database of sustainability ads.

• Cox, R. 2006. Environmental communication and the public sphere. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

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  Focuses on how media and public forums (scientists, lobbyists, corporations, advocacy groups, etc.) shape perceptions of the environment and actions relating to it. Defines the study of environmental communication, citizen action and public forums, media coverage of the environment, advocacy and justice campaigns, and science/industry discourses.

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• Friends of the Earth Campaign

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  This site includes links to a number of campaigns supported by this group, including campaigns regarding global trade, biodiversity, safer chemicals, waste, climate, real food, and transport. Also features ways to get involved.

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• Jacobson, S. K., M. D. McDuff, and M. C. Monroe. 2006. Conservation education and outreach techniques (techniques in ecology and conservation). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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  Primary chapters discuss guidelines for designing successful conservation education and outreach programs; theories for changing conservation behavior; communicating with schools; legislation and educational policy about conservation education; and marketing conservation (social marketing, various media, and related activities such as press interviews, feedback, and paid and public advertisements).

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• Moser, S., and L. Dilling, eds. 2007. Creating a climate for change: Communicating climate change and facilitating social change. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.

  DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511535871Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  These thirty-two chapters discuss the facilitators of and barriers to communicating climate change, fostering social change through public outreach, education, and policy influence, and generating collective action and behavior change. It concludes by discussing how to reach a tipping point where social opinions and policies catch up to climate science.

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• The Ocean Project

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  Provides many resources on campaigns, social marketing, and research in the area of ocean environmental literacy. The organization provides results from an ongoing tracking survey (over twenty-two thousand respondents so far) on adult and youth public awareness, attitudes, and behaviors concerning the ocean, climate change, and related issues.

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• Parker, L. J. 2008. Environmental communication: Messages, media & methods. 2d ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

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  Environmental campaigns are specifically considered in only a few chapters, but the book’s coverage of the types of central messages (human impact, sustainability, economy, democracy, and communities), and the roles of media (channels, visualization, news and magazines, risk communication, and persuasion and negotiation) provides a central contextual foundation for such campaigns.

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• United Nations Environment Programme. Creative gallery on sustainability communications

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  The first international online database of corporate and public advertising campaigns specifically dedicated to sustainability issues and classified by sustainability themes.

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Evaluation

Evaluation of prior campaigns provides understanding of the causal relationships and programmatic process of current efforts, and lessons and directions for new campaigns. Evaluation must be an integrated component of campaigns from the beginning, and requires expertise in research design, data collection and management, analysis and interpretation. Valente 2002 lays out a rigorous framework for designing and evaluating health promotion programs and campaigns. Windsor 2004, and Thorogood and Coombes 2004 both provide edited collections on all stages of health promotion, with the former focusing more on the evaluation components. Steckler and Linnan 2002 specifically considers the process evaluation aspects of health programs. Snyder, et al. 2004 identifies, in its meta-analysis, significant influences for different campaign goals, while Abroms and Maibach 2008 reviews the effects of interpersonal networks in health campaigns. Salmon and Murray-Johnson 2001 introduces six dimensions of campaign effectiveness, and Cho and Salmon 2007 highlights the unintended outcomes of health campaigns.

• Abroms, L. C., and E. W. Maibach. 2008. The effectiveness of mass communication to change public behavior. Annual Review of Public Health 29:219–234.

  DOI: 10.1146/annurev.publhealth.29.020907.090824Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article reviews the effectiveness of social network-oriented media campaigns concerning health, typically targeted to friends and family members of the focal individuals to be influenced.

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• Cho, H., and Salmon, C. 2007. Unintended effects of health communication campaigns. Journal of Communication 57:293–317.

  DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2007.00344.xSave Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Little attention has been paid to unintended health campaign effects, which is organized into a typology of eleven types of unintended effects including dissonance, boomerang, desensitization, opportunity cost, social norming, enabling, and system activation.

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• Salmon, C., and L. Murray-Johnson. 2001. Communication campaign effectiveness. In Public communication campaigns, 3d ed. Edited by R. E. Rice and C. K. Atkin, 168–180. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

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  Campaign effectiveness includes definitional effectiveness (e.g., getting a social phenomenon defined as a social problem or elevating it on the public agenda), cost-effectiveness comparison (e.g., prevention vs. treatment, addressing certain problems over others), and programmatic effectiveness (e.g., testing campaign outcomes relative to stated goals and objectives).

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• Snyder, L. B., M. A. Hamilton, E. W. Mitchell, J. Kiwanuka-Tondo, F. Fleming-Milici, and D. Proctor. 2004. A meta-analysis of the effect of mediated health communication campaigns on behavior change in the United States. Journal of Health Communication 9:71–96.

  DOI: 10.1080/10810730490271548Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Topic-specific meta-analyses show that mediated health campaigns typically have small to modest degree of short-term impact on behavior. Effects sizes ranged from .15 for seat belt use, and .09 for alcohol use reduction, to .05 for smoking and .04 for sexual behaviors.

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• Steckler, A., and Linnan, L. eds. 2002. Process evaluation for public health interventions and research. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

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  Process evaluation assesses how well a campaign is actually implemented. Knowing implementation weaknesses and strength helps frame the context for more familiar outcome/effects evaluations, and improve subsequent interventions. This book explains and assesses process evaluations of a wide range of health cases in communities, workplaces, schools, states, and the nation.

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• Thorogood, M., and Y. Coombes, eds. 2004. Evaluating health promotion: Practice and methods. 2d ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

  DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198528807.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The thirteen chapters by international authors discuss evaluating health promotions, providing many practical examples in varying social, economic, and cultural contexts, applying quantitative and qualitative methods. Topics include historical and policy aspects; social science, process, and economic evaluations; social marketing; sensitive/intimate contexts; community development; ethics; mass media; and research dissemination.

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• Valente, T. W. 2002. Evaluating health promotion programs. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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  This foundational book comprehensively explains health promotion program frameworks, intervention strategies, theories, formative and qualitative research, process evaluation, research designs, sampling, data management, analytical methods, assessing exposure and outcomes, dissemination of evaluation results, and related websites, software, and media research firms, with examples from the United States and developing countries.

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• Windsor, R. ed. 2004. Evaluation of health promotion and education programs. 3d ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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  Discusses evaluation approaches to health education, health promotion, and related health fields. Topics include planning, measurement, process evaluation, qualitative evaluation, formative and impact evaluations, cost evaluation, and reporting, and provides research examples and case studies.

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